A Backseat Control Architecture for Unmanned Marine Vehicles: A Case Study with a UUV

With increasing threats to marine ecosystems, it has become critical to develop innovative and versatile tools to monitor and protect them. In this field, Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) have emerged as indispensable systems due to their ability to operate in extreme and inaccessible environments. Recent technological advances have led to the development of increasingly compact and modular UUVs, improving their portability, logistical efficiency and versatility. These systems support the integration of advanced payloads with specialized sensors for specific missions, providing customizable and scalable solutions. This capability, combined with an auxiliary control system which exploits the frontseat/backseat paradigm, offers promising solutions for UUV customization and scalability. In this context, the paper presents a Backseat control system developed on the Robot Operating System (ROS) platform, designed to add new operational capabilities of UUVs with limited native equipment. The system enables the execution of complex Backseat monitoring operations at different maneuvers. Integrated into a navigation payload, the Backseat system autonomously handles guidance, navigation and control tasks. The proposed scalable and modular architecture supports diverse sensors and adaptability to various UUV and (Unmanned Surface Vessel) USV models too. Validation, conducted through experiments carried out in a simulated environment, demonstrates improvements in navigation accuracy and operational efficiency.